What happens when we can no longer believe what we see? Show the AI technologies that create deepfakes enough images of a celebrity or a politician and they will generate a convincing video in which that person appears to say and do things they have never actually said or done. The result is a media environment in which anyone’s face and image can be remixed and manipulated. Graham Meikle explains how deepfakes (synthetic media) are made and used. From celebrity porn and political satire to movie mash-ups and disinformation campaigns, this book explores themes of trust and consent as face-swapping software becomes more common. Meikle argues that deepfake videos allow for a new perspective on the taken-for-granted nature of contemporary media, in which our capacity to remix and share content increasingly conflicts with our capacity to trust. The book analyses how such videos deepen the social media environment in which the public and the personal converge, and in which all human experience becomes data to be shared.  Timely, clear, and accessibly written, this is an essential text for students and scholars of media, communication, cultural studies, and sociology as well as general readers.

This book focuses on how everyday media such as Facebook, iTunes and Google can be understood in new ways for the 21st century through ideas of convergence. Key chapters explore the development of the internet, the rise of social media and the new opportunities for audiences to create, collaborate upon and share their own media.

This core introductory text offers a comprehensive overview of how news has been theorised and understood in key Media Studies traditions. It explores how news is constructed, distributed and received and includes up-to-date examples and discussion of contemporary issues such as the uses of new technologies in news media.

The revolution will not be televised. But will it be online instead? When the Internet first took off, we heard a lot about its potential for social change, about how it would revitalize democracy, empowering ordinary citizens to work together to create a new public sphere. Future Active puts such claims to the test. Graham Meikle takes us behind the digital barricades and into the heart of Internet activist campaigns. In the first in-depth look at this global phenomenon, he talks to key players in the Indymedia movement and introduces us to the creators of gwbush.com, the website that provoked the President to declare that there ought to be limits to freedom. The founder of Belgrade radio station B92 explains how they used the net to thwart Milosevic's censorship, while McLibel trial defendant Dave Morris discusses his role in the McSpotlight website.

News matters. It is still the main forum for discussion of issues of public importance. It is where we come together to inform, persuade, influence, endorse or reject one another in a collaborative process of making meaning from events. But the news is changing - content, distribution channels, geographical constraints, production values, business models, regulatory approaches and cultural habits are all in flux, as new media technologies are adopted and adapted by users. However, despite having driven many of the changes themselves, established media organisations are in many cases struggling to adapt to this changed environment. News Online: Transformations and Continuities is for everyone who wants to better understand the news media of the twenty-first century. With contributions from leading international scholars who question established understandings of news in the light of change, this book charts a course through recent upheavals and ranges over a broad terrain - from the BBC to experimental videogames, from Latin American newsrooms to Northeast Asian blogs, from the crisis in US newspapers to Twitter users in Iran. Each chapter provides an insightful analysis of how popular digital communications change relations of production and consumption, in addition to the effect on cultural and political participation. News Online considers the shifting boundaries between the popular and the professional made possible by the redistribution of news functions. Graham Meikle is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Film, Media & Journalism at the University of Stirling, UK. He is the author of Interpreting News (2009) and Future Active: Media Activism and the Internet (2002). Guy Redden is a lecturer in cultural studies at the University of Sydney, Australia. He has previously taught at the University of Lincoln (UK) and Prince of Songkla University (Thailand). His research revolves around the relationships between culture, media and economy. Contributors Stuart Allan, Ian Bogost, Axel Bruns, Andres Canizalez, Kate Crawford, Mark Deuze, Natalie Fenton, Simon Ferrari, Leopoldina Fortunati, Gerard Goggin, Jairo Lugo, Robert McChesney, Brian McNair, An Nguyen, Bobby Schweizer, Einar Thorsen, Tamara Witschge and Xin Xin.

What happens when we can no longer believe what we see? Show the AI technologies that create deepfakes enough images of a celebrity or a politician and they will generate a convincing video in which that person appears to say and do things they have never actually said or done. The result is a media environment in which anyone's face and image can be remixed and manipulated. Graham Meikle explains how deepfakes (synthetic media) are made and used. From celebrity porn and political satire to movie mash-ups and disinformation campaigns, this book explores themes of trust and consent as face-swapping software becomes more common. Meikle argues that deepfake videos allow for a new perspective on the taken-for-granted nature of contemporary media, in which our capacity to remix and share content increasingly conflicts with our capacity to trust. The book analyses how such videos deepen the social media environment in which the public and the personal converge, and in which all human experience becomes data to be shared. Timely, clear, and accessibly written, this is an essential text for students and scholars of media, communication, cultural studies, and sociology as well as general readers.

The Routledge Companion to Media and Activism is a wide-ranging collection of 42 original and authoritative essays by leading contributors from a variety of academic disciplines. Introducing and exploring central debates about the diverse relationships between both media and protest, and communication and social change, the book offers readers a reliable and informed guide to understanding how media and activism influence one another. The expert contributors examine the tactics and strategies of protest movements, and how activists organize themselves and each other; they investigate the dilemmas of media coverage and the creation of alternative media spaces and platforms; and they emphasize the importance of creativity and art in social change. Bringing together case studies and contributors from six continents, the collection is organized around themes that address past, present and future developments from around the world. The Routledge Companion to Media and Activism is an essential reference and guide for those who want to understand this vital area.

Social media platforms have captured the attention and imagination of many millions of people, enabling their users to develop and display their creativity, to empathize with others, and to find connection, communication and communion. But they are also surveillance systems through which those users become complicit in their own commercial exploitation. In this accessible book, Graham Meikle explores the tensions between these two aspects of social media. From Facebook and Twitter to Reddit and YouTube, Meikle examines social media as industries and as central sites for understanding the cultural politics of everyday life. Building on the new forms of communication and citizenship brought about by these platforms, he analyzes the meanings of sharing and privacy, internet memes, remix cultures and citizen journalism. Throughout, Social Media engages with questions of visibility, performance, platforms and users, and demonstrates how networked digital media are adopted and adapted in an environment built around the convergence of personal and public communication.

This core introductory text offers a clear and comprehensive overview of how news has been theorised and understood in key Media Studies traditions. It draws upon perspectives from the Humanities and Social Sciences in exploring how news is constructed, distributed and received. Written in an accessible style, the book will include up-to-date examples and discussion of contemporary issues such as the uses of new technologies in news media. It is valuable reading for students and practitioners seeking to broaden their understanding of news and current affairs.